By Many smartphone manufacturers include two gallery apps with their devices: their own app and Google Photos. What if you could easily access your Google Photos library from the OEM app?
According to Android Police, Google Photos is integrated into the gallery apps on OPPO, OnePlus, Realme, and Xiaomi phones. According to the publication, this connection is accessible on OPPO, OnePlus, and Realme phones running Android 14. It also mentions that Xiaomi initially achieved basic integration in late 2022.
I spotted this capability on the Realme 12 Pro Plus a while ago, and it’s simple to get started with this integration. Simply launch the gallery app and select Settings > Backup to Google Photos > Backup. From here, you’ll be led to the Google Photos app, where you’ll be asked to provide access to Google Photos through your gallery app.
Enabling this option allows you to back up
Google Photo
your taken images/videos using the OEM app rather than Google Photos. Even if you despise using the Google Photos app, it’s not a big deal because you only need to set up backups once.
The most noteworthy benefit is that this integration allows you to view your complete Google Photos collection in the OEM gallery app, as well as backup your shot images/videos using the OEM app. You may have to wait a few minutes for your Google Photos library to appear in the gallery app, however. In that regard, I would have preferred a separate toggle so that I could view my cloud library in the OEM app without having to enable backups first.
The Realme gallery app displays your Google Photos library in a “restored” folder. Videos are streamed from Google Photos or downloaded using the download icon. Photos are initially presented as ~1080px previews, then instantly downloaded at full resolution and displayed at the folder’s top. This isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing layout.
The gallery app handles photo modifications nicely, allowing you to select between altering the original file and storing a copy (see screenshot below). And I discovered that selecting either choice was correctly represented in Google Photos on the web. Edits are made using the gallery app’s capabilities, and features such as the Color OS image cutter tool functioned properly when the photo was downloaded.
Android Police also reported that Xiaomi’s gallery app was recently updated to include extensive Google Photos integration, following rudimentary support in 2022. Xiaomi’s integration appears to let you to pick whether photographs are downloaded manually or automatically.
Google’s support page states that only Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus, and Realme phones are currently supported. However, the article specifies that you must have at least Android 11, not Android 14. This requirement implies that older phones may also receive Google Photos integration in their gallery apps.
In any case, we hope Google Photos integration is added to the Samsung Gallery and other OEM gallery apps in the future, as it will eliminate the need to switch between two gallery apps.
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